FROM AN ADDRESS AT NASHVILLE,TENNESSEE ON THE FIRST SUNDAY
IN FEBRUARY, Last Sunday night at Mentone, France, there died the greatest man of modern times. If every crowned head in Europe had died that night, the event would not be so momentous as the death of this one man. At the depot of death, God’s chariot met him as a kingly guest, and a convoy of angels escorted him home. Cherubim hovered over him and Seraphim flamed before him. The bended heavens stooped to meet him.
And who are these, like clouds of doves from the windows of heaven, that fly to greet him? These are his spiritual children, begotten unto God through his ministry, out of every nation and tribe and kindred. From the British Isles, from America, from the Australian bush, from the Islands of the sea, “from Afric’s torrid climes,” and “Greenland’s icy mountains,” “from India’s coral strand,” from the pine-clad mountains Mr. Spurgeon’s sermons in gold! Gold befits gold! I can never tell my indebtedness to them. As I read them week by week in my young manhood, they gave me a grip of the Gospel that I can never lose, and gave an ideal of its presentation in nervous, transparent and forcible language which has colored my entire ministry. It is marvelous to, notice, also, that the last volume, just published, seems to lack nothing in comparison with those that have gone before. What a blessed ministry this has been to myriads.”
Moody himself said, “I have read everything by Spurgeon I can get my hands on,” and advised his students to do likewise.
A missionary recently remarked: “Although many selected sermons by Spurgeon have been reprinted in various forms, the amazing thing is that these original, complete volumes, have never been republished.” The purpose of the present republication is to contribute to the fulfillment of the prophecy of Nicoll when he said: “The sermons preached fifty years ago axe a living message today, and one dares to prophesy, will not be out of date when this twentieth century is drawing to its close.”
